But fear not, you enduring Hunters of Ragol! In that same announcement, SonicTeam mentions that they are in discussions to grant access to a Phantasy Star Online 2 "user participation test" (among other things) to Japanese PSOBB subscribers at a later time. No further details are known at the moment, but stay tuned. We'll be posting more information as it surfaces! In the meantime, jump in the ongoing discussion of this news at the forum.

To commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Japanese version of Blue Burst, Sonic Team will be sponsoring a new Maximum Attack event on the Japanese servers. Set to start on June 3, this event will take place in Episode 1, 2, and 4 with the kill goal being set at 100 million. Players will be able qo acquire items such as the Kunai, Chameleon Scythe, Girasole, and Agastya mag. Credit goes to GyroidFanatic for bringing us this news.

Robotix writes in to tell us that the PSO: Blue Burst servers are up, running, and now FREE! As reported back in November, Blue Burst players with who had an active subscription past December 9th will be allowed to enjoy the online service at no additional cost until March 31, 2008. At that time, the Blue Burst servers will be taken offline forever.

As the North American (and worldwide for 360) release of PSU: Ambition of the Illuminus is only hours away, we regret that we must bring forth some sad news for players of PSO: Blue Burst. The English PSOBB servers will be closing for good early next year. From the Sega Billing web site:

"We regret to announce that you will no longer be able to purchase Hunters’ Licenses for Phantasy Star Blue Burst from January 9th 2008.

All subscription-based services will be terminating on Jan 9th, 2008.

If you have an active subscription terminating between January 9th 2008 and February 9th 2008, your Hunters’ License will be valid until February 9th, at which point the game servers will be made available free of charge to all previous Hunters’ License holders.

Phantasy Star Blue Burst game servers will be closed down on March 31st, 2008."

According to a post on Sega's official message boards, Hunter's License sales for PSOBB will actually cease on December 06, 2007, and all subscription-based services for Blue Burst will terminate on January 09, 2008. Any subscriptions that expire between December 09, 2007 and January 09, 2008, will be valid until January 09, 2008, at which point, the servers will be made available for free until they are take offline forever on March 31, 2008.

Please be sure to check out Clumsyorchid's post at the official forum for further details, including reasons for the closure.

On July 3rd, Sonic Team will celebrate the third anniversary of Japanese version of Blue Burst by holding a large number of in-game and web-based events. These events will include Maximum Attack 4 RE, four new comic strips, screenshot and illustration contests, special quests, and GM events. The third anniversary event is scheduled to last until September 3rd. No details have been released yet about the Maximum Attack event or new quests. Credit goes to Saffran for bringing us this news.

From April 24th to May 8th, all rare drops on the Japanese Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst servers are being multiplied by two. As usual, this drop increase only pertains to games that are playing in a mission, (Hunters Guild quest and such) rather than in the free mode.

On March 27th, the Japanese Blue Burst servers were updated with two new quests and a team item. The first quest combines the first four "Claire" quests into a single permanent quest. Each of the previous Claire quests were time-limited item-exhange. A person can use the new quest to trade for items such as the From the Depths shield. The second quest is an incredibly difficult 'maximum kills' style quest set in Episode 4. In this quest, your team has 20 minutes to kill 820 enemies in several small rooms. In some of the rooms, several Dorphon and Girtablulu may show up at one time. If you die, you will have to wait on Pioneer 2 for the quest to come to an end. Unlike other quests, you have to pay an admittance price to be admitted to the quest. For Ultimate Mode, this price is 40,000 meseta. At the present time, no known team has successfully completed the quest on Ultimate Mode. Finally, a new team item known as the Union Shield was released. This shield costs 100 team points and is supposed to display the team flag. Credit goes to Saffran for bringing us this news.

On December 5th, a special Stealth Suit was released on the Japanese version of Blue Burst and can be obtained by completing the Net Cafe quest. While the practicality of the suit still has yet to be seen, it should prove popular with Naruto-themed characters and may finally provide a solution for the perceived Ramar/Humar ugliness problem. In addition, several new items such as Heavenly HP, Heavently TP, Heavenly Resist have been released. Finally, the Christmas theme was activated. Credit goes to Saffran for providing this news.

Even though Phantasy Star Universe is out, the Japanese version of Blue Burst is still continuing to be updated. The second versions of Maximum Attack 1 and 2 from the Gamecube have been added as playable quests. Also, the Login Contest has started. In this quest, you face off against 2 GMs. If you win, your team will earn the Izmaela. Otherwise, you will receive the Login Game Magazine. Finally, A new quest called "Claire's Trade" has been released. You will be able to trade in certain items for new items. For example, the Mericus (a new Force weapon) can be obtained by trading in a Caduceus, Glide Divine, Brave Hammer, and Kinger Striker. New items will be added regularly to this quest. In the future, Japanese players will be able to look forward to playing Maximum Attack 3 Version 2. Credit goes to Saffran for bringing us this news.